After reviewing the play, Philip Rivers does not need his jersey washed before Buffalo on Sunday...

The Chargers did a lot right at home in Qualcomm Stadium, while the Patriots did not. Here's the box score and here's what the tape crystallized for me:

Cassel: I know everyone is fired up about the little-leaguer they once called Moose, so I'll address the quarterback first.

In my game preview, I believed that the Patriots could rely on an old successful strategy against the Chargers. San Diego is poor against the short passing game, so I envisioned a spread formation utilizing quick hitters on simple out and slant pass-patterns.

When Josh McDaniel did go to this scheme (1st possessions of both halves), I thought it was a good call, and it was in spurts, but not consistently. This is where Cassel's deficiencies took clearer form.

When quarterbacking a spread, there is essentially no misdirection. You are saying to a defense, "Here are my options, try to cover them all quickly." There is no play-action to isolate a clear match-up.

In the spread, when Cassel's primary reads are open, he can deliver the ball. However, his patience wanes and he becomes inaccurate or, even worse, puts his head down and begins to think about cutting and running. If a target is missed on 1st down, it naturally places more stress on subsequent downs. Facing 3rd and long against a defense sitting on the pass, being accurate is even more of a premium.

Brady's strengths are accuracy and patience; he is the perfect spread quarterback. Cassel needs to slow down his patience and speed up his reads, and he needs to do that fast if he hopes to continue starting.

(Cassel's worst play on Sunday was when he tried to scramble on the 4th and goal instead of staying calm and scanning for a wide-open Ben Watson. And then Rivers ran a perfect play-action flip to Antonio Gates for a TD right after. Ugh. Talk about rubbing it in.)

D-Line: The lack of physical intensity really showed on the Patriots defensive line. Despite mixing up formations and coverages, New England barely sniffed Rivers' breath. Like the 49ers game, the Patriots put 2, 3, or 4 down lineman up front, but this time, nothing worked. Ty Warren got somewhat banged up early, which didn't help, but the unit as a whole was lacking.

The rush defense was fine, but the Patriots (and coordinator Dean Pees (hello, Dean?)) need to come up with some way to at least hurry opposing quarterbacks some of the time.

This game proved that, without any pressure, adept quarterbacks and tall wide receivers can beat the small and relatively slow members of the New England secondary. A lack of pressure makes it that much easier to run the slower-developing play-action throws, which burned the Patriots for the first 2 50-yard passes.

Ask Dan Koppen (who was run over by Jamal Williams) how disruptive forceful D-Line pressure can be.

"Eye-Light" of the Game: While I could surely pick New England's inability to score from 1st and goal from the 1 in the 3rd quarter, that play was just a disheartening sidenote to a game that was really already lost before.

Instead, recall the 2nd quarter. In a relatively even game (10-3) with 3:21 left in the half, the Patriots faced a 3rd and 2 from deep within their own territory. New England ran an I-form handoff to the left with Sammy Morris blocking for Kevin Faulk, which was blown up at the line.

Ex-squeeze me? Come again? First off, why not spread it and pass to Faulk? And if you are going to I-form, why not run Sammy Morris behind, say, Heath Evans?

After a Darren Sproles punt return and a penalty, the Chargers got the ball at the Patriots 33 with 2 minutes left and quickly made the game 17-3.